Monday, November 10, 2008

8-Year Old Charged With Two Counts of First Degree Murder

St. Johns, Arizona is now the home of an eight- year- old boy who is accused of murdering his father and his dad's co-worker. The boy will appear in court Monday, after being charged with two counts of premeditated murder. Romero's funeral is also scheduled for Monday. Police say the child admitted to killing his father, 29-year-old Vincent Romero and Romero's co-worker who was living with them.

The eight-year-old's attorney says police questioned his client without a parental supervision or legal counsel and was not given his rights. Police want the child to be charged as an adult.

The family priest told authorities the boy's father and stepmother had come to him for advice about the boy. Romero questioned whether the boy should handle guns. He said they were avid hunters and wanted to teach his son how to use a rifle. Police say the boy used a 22-calibre rifle to kill the two men.

St. Johns Police Chief, Roy Melnick speculated a motive.

"I think it was on his mind a long time, and then a trigger just triggered it, and the child said: I've had enough. I'm gonna take care of it today. We certainly have to take a look at physical and emotional abuse, we have to look maybe there was nay domestic violence in the home that he might have witnessed, or there was discipline that was given to him, may be it was more strict than it should have been," said Melnick.

Carlos, Diaz a relative of the eight-year-old also spoke up about the allegations

"He was always a good kid. You know very active a very nice kid. This is just shocking I would never think that something would happen like this," said Diaz.